


and the water makes sense of her laugh

by sapphfics



Category: Barbie - All Media Types, Barbie in a Mermaid Tale (Movies), Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2 (2012)
Genre: Canon Related, F/F, Femslash, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-25 20:37:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21362332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphfics/pseuds/sapphfics
Summary: Seven things Merliah Summers is bad at, as observed by Kylie Morgan.
Relationships: Kylie Morgan/Merliah Summers
Comments: 27
Kudos: 90





	and the water makes sense of her laugh

**Author's Note:**

> this story was inspired by a hunger games fic from 2011 which you can read [ here](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7568028/1/Eight-Things-Madge-Undersee-is-Bad-At)

Merliah Summers is bad at leaving home. 

There is a reason why, at first, she only has two people she considers her friends despite innumerous numbers of fans and fellow surfers all vying for her undivided attention. Particularly Ken, she is ashamed to admit, though he gave up surfing long before he stopped pursuing her. 

She hates leaving home.

Her grandfather had tried to move them away from Malibu several times over her childhood, but he didn’t really explain why they never left. It wasn’t a case of lack of money or housing or lack of relatives who wanted to take them in, but Break couldn’t stand to be away from the ocean for too long. He still can’t, and Merliah doesn’t like it, either. 

They never left Malibu for long. They always came back. 

But Merliah did change schools often, especially after one of her teacher’s eyes began glowing and she started spouting something awful about the deaths in the sea and a witch baying for her blood. Even some of the boys cried as she said this, and Merliah had been frozen with fear. 

She vowed never to be afraid of anyone again. No matter who they were, or what they could do to her. 

It’s different with Kylie. Everything is different with Kylie. Merliah has always hated flying so far away from the ground and the safety of the ocean, but she does it to see Kylie. 

She will do anything to see Kylie, and Kylie will never stop being grateful. 

-:-

Merliah Summers is bad at keeping out of the spotlight.

Merliah’s love life - or rather, her distinct lack thereof - has been a subject of gossip and at least vague obsession amongst surfing competitors and the crowds who watch them. It isn’t that she isn’t attractive or likeable - almost everyone loved her the second they saw her. She was magnetic that way, drawing people to her like she was the sun. 

Kylie had also found Merliah’s lack of a boyfriend strange, not that she ever asked about it until they had been friends for awhile. Kylie had seen her in photo shoots with male surfers and she had just looked so uncomfortable it had made Kylie feel slightly sick. 

She isn’t jealous, though. She swears, even when her mom is laughing knowingly and affectionately before she hangs up the phone after telling her about Merliah for about an hour. 

“Oh?” Merliah says and coughs awkwardly. “So, the thing is, I’m-“

And then her grandfather comes in and Merliah stops whatever she was going to say, and Kylie decides not to bring it up again until three days before their wedding. 

-:-

Merliah Summers is bad at walking.

Her feet are strange. Or at least, she thinks they are. Small and bent, always sticking out strangely like she’s a ballerina forever in pose and never dancing quite right. She used to refuse to wear open toed shoes to the beach until she realised how she hated cleaning sand out of her sneakers more than she could ever hate her feet. 

Sometimes her legs shimmer underwater and she forgets they are there. 

Kylie is the first person to clearly notice her strange gate but ignore it entirely. Later, Kylie says she had thought it was cute. 

“Cute? Really?” Merliah asks and giggles. 

“Yeah,” Kylie admits. “But it did also kinda piss me off, because I thought ‘damn she even walks beautifully’? How am I ever gonna compete with her?”

“You managed it though,” Merliah says. “Glad you did.”

“I am too,” Kylie says and is glad Merliah didn’t comment on how she said she was beautiful. Hopefully, it’s because she already knows and doesn’t think it’s weird for Kylie, of all people, to comment on it. 

Hopefully. 

-:-

Merliah Summers is bad at letting things go.

Eris, human and powerless, comes to Merliah’s doorstep and begs for forgiveness. Merliah spits in her face and slams the door. 

She is the angriest Kylie has ever seen her. And then she stops, breathing heavily, her arms leaning against the living room's door frame. 

Kylie holds her as she sobs angrily, whispering things about how her mother will hate her, and Kylie tries to comfort her as best she can. 

“You don’t have to forgive her, Merliah,” Kylie tells her. “She has done nothing to deserve your forgiveness. She’s playing on your kindness.”

Merliah only nods, and Kylie hopes she will one day stop carrying the weight of the ocean on her shoulders. 

-:- 

Merliah Summers is bad at flirting. 

You wouldn’t assume so, given how beautiful she is, especially with her pink hair that will never wash out. Commentators love talking about her, sometimes in a more salacious manner before realising how old she is. Not that she even realises she’s being filtered with by most people. She had only noticed Ken because he had kissed her, but then she was never really that into boys or who they had crushes on. 

She tried, of course, but it just never clicked for her. 

-:- 

Merliah Summers is bad at dying. 

So bad, in fact, that she will not stop throwing herself into mortal peril. Her people continue to adore her for it, but her loved ones want her to hold back and be safe and stay hidden. A courageous fallen martyr is better than a living coward, isn’t it? 

Merliah has been hiding all her life. She is sick of it. 

Kylie knows this, and she wants to be by her side. 

-:- 

Merliah Summers is bad at being honest.

You never know who might spill a secret to the paparazzi. There are a lot of slow news days in Malibu, somehow, and Merliah’s first kiss with Ken is splashed across every magazine in Malibu.

“But you hated me?” Merliah remarks the first time Kylie kisses her. It’s New Years Eve and they’re on the beach, tucked away in a corner where no one else can see them. And then Merliah stops for a second and whispers “Ken never kissed me like that, but I never gave him the chance.” 

“This is okay then, Princess?” Kylie asks. 

“Of course,” Merliah says and pushes her further away from the party. It’s five seconds into the New Year already but Merliah kisses her again anyway. “Since I’m a Princess, are you-“

“I’m yours, if you’ll have me.” Kylie looks Merliah right in the eyes. “If-“

Merliah kisses her again and that is a clearer answer than any words she could say. 

And then they break apart when they hear someone who sounds a lot like Hadley cheering, and Fallon claiming “Hadley, you owe me five bucks!” and Merliah just grins and pulls her back into the party. 

“Yes! Now dance with me?” Merliah asks, and Kylie can’t say no. 

Their close embrace during a dance is splashed across newspapers the next morning, but they both stay in bed and decide they don’t care. The outside world doesn’t matter as long as they have one another. 

Kylie rises early, clutches Merliah’s necklace to her neck, and wonders what her new girlfriend would like for breakfast.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to [ WoollyLambda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WoollyLambda/pseuds/WoollyLambda) for just being incredible!!
> 
> come talk to me on [tumblr](https://dykeelsa.tumblr.com/) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/lesbosansastark) if you feel so inclined! let’s be friends <333

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [re: and the water makes sense of her laugh](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21383251) by [WoollyLambda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WoollyLambda/pseuds/WoollyLambda)


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